I am SO sorry for the long wait.

Thank you a thousand times for the reviews and PMs - they're what brought me back despite having a hard time finding back into this.

Lucy awoke to her head throbbing. It didn't hurt, it was… pressure. She was tired. Her body felt slightly numb, and she had to fight to keep waking up. What time what is?

She raised her hand to her temple. Something clanked like metal, strong and heavy. It weighed down her wrist like the magic thickly fogging the air, clouding her mind.

Magic… Why was there so much magic? What had they been doing last?

The tower!

Lucy shot up to sit, only to be dragged back painfully by her wrists. More rattling – chains. Not hers though, she found when holding perfectly still, awkwardly crouching on the ground. She wasn't alone.

"Natsu…?" she whispered into the complete darkness around her.

It was cold, her naked legs stinging on the icy floor. But… she had worn a long pyjama to sleep…

"Lucy?" Levy's voice came from somewhere to the left. Lucy tried again to pull on her restraints, locate and detangle them to sit up but to no avail. She registered the presence of something firm in front of her, moist, smelling of stone. "Solid Script: Light!" Levy cast.

Nothing happened.

For a moment, Lucy suspected that it wasn't magic at all that was droning around them but the lack of it. Like a void, bogging them down, drowning them under invisible waves or pressure.

"Wait." Lucy twisted her wrists, angling them closer to her body. The closer she moved to whatever was in front of her, the loser her chains became. She felt her hip, shocked to not only find her keys missing, but no clothes at all.

The chains to her left rattled again, quickly this time.

"Levy?"

"Just a bit… more…" Levy grunted with effort. She husked out a breath, as if fogging a window. Lucy frowned when she thought to be hearing spitting, then "Solid Script: Light!"

Sparks flashed into existence, gathering into a softly glowing ball of light. Under it sat Levy, equally naked and equally uncomfortably squatting as Lucy for only her feet to touch the ground. With her tiny hands, she had wriggled out of her restraints.

"What's going on? Where is everyone?" Lucy looked around. She had trouble seeing, the dense magic power around her so intense it exhausted her to a point where she could hardly open her eyes. Her knees shook, head heavy like a newborn's.

"Meredy," Levy was saying, "Juvia! Solid Script: Light!" she repeated, sending more flashes around the room. Juvia and Meredy lied on the ground. No clothes. Chains around their wrists. With Juvia, one could never know these days, and Lucy could have both imagined some sick prank on Natsu's behalf when it came to herself, as well as Levy undressing for… convenience when it came to the twins? Gajeel getting bold inside their tent despite the others around?

In any case, Jellal would have been standing upright in his sleeping bag had Meredy so much as threatened to strip to her birthday suit – this could not be a coincidence.

Levy hissed when her knees met the cold stone, kneeling down between the girls. She prodded their shoulders. "Come on, you guys…"

A moan. Juvia slowly awoke. Meredy didn't. "What's wrong?" Levy kept on tapping Meredy. "And where are we?" She met Lucy's eyes.

Lucy shrugged. "I'm kinda afraid it's got something to do with that tower…"

"Oh my god, my babies!" Levy suddenly yelled. Her chains rattled where she scrambled over them to grope around. "We don't have any bottles anymore; they'll starve! We have to get out of here!"

"Obviously," Charle's voice appeared. "Send some more light around please, I think I know where we are." Her annoyance faded into dread. Lucy exchanged a glance with Levy.

Doing as she was told, Levy flooded the already with magic clogged area in a brighter, garish light.

Stone, all around. Man-high bricks, moist and partially covered in moss, formed a circular prison around them. In the middle of the small room was a pillar reaching into the ceiling. Their chains ended inside it without any attachment whatsoever.

"How odd…" Lucy moved her arms, watching the end of the chain move up and down where it merged into the wall as if fading into a portal.

"What's going on?" Wendy regained consciousness. She was to Lucy's other side, shivering the moment she pushed through the haze that must have knocked them all out. As far as she could reach with her chains, Lucy helped Wendy sit. Charle joined, wings stretched where she hovered. Her dress was gone as well.
Lucy's eyes travelled again. "Guys," she gulped, "I think we're inside the tower."

"It appeared?" Juvia asked.

They turned when Meredy finally stirred. Lucy peeked around the pillar which they were all somehow chained to, spotting Erza next to Meredy. Both of them groaned, irritated by the density of magic and the chains blocking a comfortable sitting position.

Naked, shuffling to sit, they came to. For the first time, Lucy noticed the character on the chains – magic seal stone. So then her keys wouldn't have helped. Still, where were they? The others might have lost their clothes, but Lucy had lost the link to her strongest magic. Her magic and her best friends…

The atmosphere didn't change, but Lucy found that she was more and more adapting to the overstimulation, gradually withstanding the worst of its intensity.
"Seems like the tower – or whoever else – only took us girls." Levy looked around, her thoughts clearing as well. "Maybe the boys are on another level?" She directed her gaze upwards at the ceiling.

"There is no other level," Erza croaked, laboriously tugging her knees under herself. "And if this is some selective girl‑napping magic, where is Rosemary?"

"Oh, no, lil Rose!" Meredy cried. "And we let Natsu give her the last bottle! What are we gonna do? How late is it? When did you feed last? I want my baby back!" She shook Erza by her shoulders.

"Easy, Meredy," Wendy tried to soothe.

Erza frowned, Meredy's agitation infecting her. She cursed looking down herself. "I can't requip."

"I fed the twins at midnight," Levy went back to assessing the situation. "But without windows, we can't know how late it is."

"Still night." Erza kept frowning. "The moon…" She stared up at the ceiling. Her hand shot up to her head, the motion sending a new buzz through her head. "The moon has a crescent shape. Jellal was right."

"How do you…?" Lucy squinted at the bricks above to no avail. There were no cracks, no loosely set stones to get as much as a peak at the sky. She leaned over to where Erza was but couldn't get close enough.

"Can't you see it?" Erza asked. The others followed her gaze, but seemed just as puzzled as Lucy.

"Juvia sees something else," Juvia piped up. She had scooted away from the pillar as far as her restraints allowed her. Lucy leaned past Levy to see.

Murals. Several figures drawn in an angular, abstract style. Humans, most likely. Lucy recognised them by their breasts as female, and attributed the lack of clothing to their past era of origin. At least so she hoped – there were no bones littering the floor to tell of a dark last moment in those women's lives, neither that anyone had recently been trapped like they were now.

The tower was there, further down the wall. In a circle, the murals wound around the room. Men were in the coming depiction, separate from the women, and then together in the following. They had weapons, fire. There was bloodshed amongst other atrocities against the woman tribe that Lucy did not even want to look at as tiny, unshapely drawings. Finally came the tower. Lucy had to shift around the pillar in the middle of the room to see the rest of the story unfold.

Swirls, perhaps magic, poured from the women's staffs. It erected, at least surrounded the tower which was alight or perhaps glowing with wild, wavy lines. The women went into it; disappeared behind the bricks. Men came to the tower next, but remained before it, unable to enter. Their weapons had been drawn broken on the ground.

Lastly, right behind Lucy, was the tower again – giant and looming protectively, had it not been for the enormous crack tearing through it. The mural was intact, and so was the wall, but somehow, there was a crack. The longer she looked, the more did Lucy feel the draft of magic streaming towards her from within the rupture.

How could it be so huge without there being a hole leading to freedom?

"If this thing was built to be a safe haven for girls, why did it capture us?" Wendy pronounced Lucy's thoughts.

They didn't know whether it was the tower itself or someone else or even those women of old times.

Lucy closed her eyes as she mused. She would have liked that flyer back. They should have listened to what the impolite farmer had tried to warn them of.

"Erza," Meredy was complaining on the other side of the room.

"The moon is up, we have to hurry," Erza only panted back. She was clawing at the stone below her in desperation. Her nails ripped, partially broke off, fingertips bursting with how she rammed them into the furrows between the bricks. "I need to feed my baby."

"So do I," Levy intervened with concern when blood started to smear across the floor, "but we have to think this through."

"Juvia thinks we should save our strength." Juvia lifted her wrists, indicating them as her first priority.

"Levy," Lucy sat up straighter, "try to blast the wall open."

"With all of us in this enclosed space? I don't know, Lu…" Levy let her head hang.

"Make a sword!" Erza gasped, coughing on it.

"Alright," Levy said, unconvinced. "Solid Script: Sword!" she conjured as she was told. Out of a cloud of dust appeared a simple iron sword. Erza scrambled to reach it, but her chains tugged her back harshly. Meredy handed it over where she was closer. Levy pursed her lips. "Though I really doubt that will—" She winced when Erza used the sword to pierce her chains.

Again, nothing. Not a scratch, the same happening when she started swiping at the pillar despite her limited movement. Meredy and Juvia leant away as far as they could. Then with one precise stab, Erza flung the sword in between two bricks. It shattered, the metal pieces flying. The stone was left untouched.

"I didn't think it would work…" Levy quietly said.

Erza growled, then sobbed once, demanding another sword and then another. They all shattered, and even the hilt only crushed uselessly against the stone. Not resting for a second, Erza went back to scraping with her hands.

"This makes no sense," Charle complained. She was hovering along the mural. She grimaced, trying hard to block out the way Erza was mauling herself in an attempt to do the same to the ground. "Why would any of you need saving from the men? They're more afraid of you than the other way around…" She glanced at Erza disapprovingly.

The latter kept on fiercely hammering on the bricks, wheezing and growling in frustration. "Jellal," she breathed. "Jellal!" Her head flew up. Lucy flinched, convinced Erza had now gone completely insane. "Jellal!" Erza kept shouting, this time waving her arms. The chains rattled, tiny droplets of blood flying. The magic pouring out from the crack weighed them all down with pounding, thick headaches, but Erza fought herself to her feet. The chains kept her hands low, her face as if trying to peel off her skull where she gazed upwards.

All there was being the ceiling.

"Erza," Meredy gently tried, but Erza shook her off.

"He's right there! All the way atop the tower. Jellal!" She called again. Then gasped, her gaze flashing down the wall. "He was there, I'm telling you. He used Meteor, but he couldn't get through the…" Her words slowed. Brows furrowing, she sank to her knees.

Meredy let go of her own head to reach out a hand. Lucy noticed only then that the looming aura had lessened – or perhaps ceased to increase now that Erza had collapsed again.

Before Meredy got to touch Erza's shoulder, Erza had sprung up. Crawling forward, she punched the very last brick she could reach. A knuckle popped, then a second and third. Meredy winced, backing away ever so slightly.

"Makes you wonder if she's more concerned with her nurseling's ability to survive or her husband's…"

Lucy sighed. Leaning against the pillar her chains vanished into but which was solid to the touch, she tried in vain to ignore the constant rapping of bone against stone. "It's times like these that I miss Aquarius the most," she lamented.

Meredy scooted over as far as she could. Levy not being attached to her own chains made it possible to climb over them until Meredy's own kept her in place.

"'Cause she'd get you out in no time?" She smiled a little, knowing how sensitive the topic still was.

Lucy grinned. "No, she'd almost drown me in some deadly vortex that would unintendedly also break us free."

"That's… reassuring." Meredy tried to mirror the smile, hardly succeeding.

Something cracked. Their heads whipped around to where Erza had momentarily stopped pounding. She hissed, flicked her chained wrist, then continued with the other hand which's knuckles were just as burst yet unbroken.

"Erza," Levy said where she roamed the walls, "how did you know Jellal was up there?"

"Because I saw him," Erza huffed with effort, scratching the moss out from between the bricks. "He was," she panted, "glowing. Meteor."

"And did he have Rosemary?"

"Yes," Erza had to pause for breath. "I think," she added more quietly.

"And then he jumped down there?" Levy pointed to where Erza had looked.

"I don't know – there's a wall in the way." Erza slumped down, trying to reach said wall in order to kick at it. Something sparked up in her eyes and she flopped down all the way on her back, worming towards the wall.

"There's a wall but no ceiling?" Wendy didn't sound convinced. Or hopeful.

"Yes," Erza puffed, rattling her chains hectically to untangle them. Lucy bit her lip, knowing Erza would not want her pity, nor her reassurance. She wasn't even sure she could give any reassurance, at least none she believed herself.

"I'm no expert," Charle redirected their attention, "but I might have found something of use." She pointed at the mural. "Writing."

It summoned Levy to her side at once.

Lucy craned her neck, torn between inspecting the ancient writing and watching Wendy trying to weasel her also delicate wrists out of their restraints.

"I've seen this language," Levy announced. "It's an old dialect from around here – I've even used it on a mission once. They said my pronunciation was horrible…" She scratched her neck.

"Can you translate it?" Juvia hopefully asked.

"Of course." Levy puffed out her chest, then promptly covered it. Blush rose to her cheeks. Her eyes momentarily flashed to Wendy who shot her an unhappy glare.

"Anyway, what does the mural say?" Meredy pressed.

"Right, right," Levy turned back. "As I said, it's only a dialect. It should be pretty easy to recite it word by word…" She fell into a pensive silence.

Lucy waited, wincing when Erza's patience apparently snapped and she started wiggling again.

Levy nodded to herself. "Some of it's corroded, but I can decipher this:

Magic is Power. Magic is Life.
Become a mother, not a wife.
Beware the beast – his greed, his rage,
Find one but flee before his true age."

"Does that mean they hooked up with teenagers and then cooped themselves up in this tower?" Meredy tutted.

Juvia and Wendy exchanged concerned glances. Erza paused her kicking, chest heaving.

Levy read on, her finger tracing along the wall.
"A tower shall rise, keep you safe from crime,
its walls will stand to the end of time.
Pray to… This part I can't read," Levy ran her palm over the decaying letters, "for nothing on this earth can destroy it," she ended.

Silence fell. Lucy lowered her gaze.

It was what they already knew from the murals – an ancient tribe of women having been done wrong, creating a magical building to protect them from the men of their time. 'Nothing on this earth can destroy it' bothered her the most. Would they have to tear the entire thing down to get out? And were the others locked out or would their attempts at magic – being men – be just as fruitless as that of the girls in chains?

The villagers having commissioned the request had wanted the tower destroyed – they must have known more about its strange magic!

Erza was the first to break the silence. Scrambling, she wound herself towards the outer wall as far as she could with her hands raked back over her head. She cussed under her breath.

Charle rolled her eyes. "That doesn't explain why we're being held prisoners and why she can see the moon when there's a ceiling right above us." She flew up to poke the bricks for emphasis.

"No, I think Erza's right," Levy intervened. "This whole thing must be a misunderstanding – a curse, trying to keep us safe where we don't need it. Erza has a fake eye—"

"Which just found us," Erza groaned in pain where she stretched as far as she could, "a way out!" She kicked with all she had. Lucy gasped, hands flying to her mouth.

Half of Erza's leg had disappeared through the wall.

"What do you see?" Levy came over quickly. She felt along the wall to no avail. It was intact. Erza's leg was as if glitching, just like the chains.

"Nothing," Erza panted. Her arms were cramped, stretched out achingly but she refused to back away and give them room. "But if—" She froze. As did the others. Lucy didn't notice to be holding her breath until Erza released her own. "Jellal…" she whispered. Blinking away the beginning of a tear from her left eye, she wiggled her leg as far as possible through the invisible hole – through a brick, as far as Lucy was concerned. "It's him, I know those hands." Erza glowed where she must have felt her husband touch her leg.

"Okay, but," Wendy peered at the scene from around the pillar, "how is that going to help?"

"I'm telling you, it's Erza," Jellal repeated, "I know these legs." Hectically, relieved, he ran his hands over the ankle that had suddenly appeared from the intact wall. "She was wearing her Heart Kreuz pyjamas – clothes must not be able to get through." He studied the outer wall with his eyes, never letting go of his wife's foot.

"I think I almost liked it better when you nearly died of shame for saying these things," Gray said, "more entertaining."

"I'd really prefer she'd stick out a tit – Gale's gonna freak any minute now," Gajeel grumbled, watching his son with unease where he was strapped to his chest.

"We've already come this far!" Jellal barked with a mixture of gladness and panic.

"We haven't gotten anywhere so far – they found a way to," Gray tilted his head at Erza's leg, "get to us… in a way. Her. And if everyone's really in there, how are we supposed to get them out? It's like the brain portion of our group was taken away."

"Hey!"

"Also you can't even go near that thing."

"I know," Jellal muttered, "but why?" He kept hold of Erza's foot, caressing her ankle, cursing inwardly at how an inexplicable pressure kept him from going any further. Even Rosemary cried the closer he went.

She was being so good, the thought, more than relieved how she hadn't begged for food yet.

"What's taking Salamander so long? How hard can it be to find a stupid goat?" Gajeel growled. Untying the knot of the first baby sling, he handed Tetsu to Gray. The latter backed off but couldn't refuse when Gale was shoved at him a second later.

It seemed stress was greater than Gajeel's initial fear of handing over his children.

He reeled his arm back. It turned to iron, enormous and sharp like a chainsaw, thrashing against the wall of the tower.

"Careful!" Jellal yelled.

"Levy must be in there too!" Gajeel protested, giving the unfazed bricks another slash.

"You might hurt them!"

"I'm not—" Gajeel kept on slamming his iron sword against the bricks, "hurting," he lunged again, "anything!" He howled in frustration.

"This isn't working," Gray mumbled, rocking the twins helplessly.

"We know!" Jellal and Gajeel said in unison. It was the final straw, making Gale start the siren. Gray grimaced, but his arms were too full to cover his ears.

Jellal beckoned him over. Stepping as close to Erza's still hovering leg as he could, he gave it to Rosemary. She curiously reached out, tiny fingers wrapping around her mother's toes. With her occupying Erza so she wouldn't leave, Jellal had his hands free to help Gray tie the baby slings.

He looked more than overchallenged with both twins strapped to him.

"How the hell does this even work!?" Gajeel was rampaging at the brick around Erza's knee, seeing as there didn't seem to be a hole whatsoever.

"Maybe we really should get someone from the village, no matter how afraid they are," Jellal proposed, back to holding his wife's foot.

"Yeah, like catching the creep from earlier helped." Gray scoffed.

"I can hear you!" The farmer they had met in the woods the previous day shouted indignantly from where he was kept on a leash, tied to a tree. "And I'm no creep! I was trying to warn you, you know!"

"Then why didn't you do so?" Gray barked back. He restrained himself when it only made the twins weep more.

"What if we—" Jellal interrupted himself. Erza's leg was retracting. He grabbed her ankle, holding on tightly. She kept pulling back. Jellal forced his hand as far against the pressure keeping him from so much as touching the tower as he could, but it was no use.

Gray reached out too. He grazed her toes only so, but then she was gone. Jellal blankly stared at the spot, horrified almost.

"Okay, new plan." Gray resumed rocking to calm down the twins. Their cries were starting to upset Rosemary as well.

"It better involve," Gajeel grunted as he drilled his iron sword into the tower, "goat milk!"

The sword pierced the space between the bricks, sending sparks flying. He stared at the spot in disbelief. Not the mildest scratch.

Jellal's lacrima buzzed in his pocket. He hardly reacted. Only when Gray pointed out that it could have been Meredy did he take a look. He didn't pick up. Ambrose left a message when receiving no answer: I regret to have to disturb you, but the Council urgently requires your assistance at the earliest possible moment you can spare.

Great, Jellal thought. As if matters couldn't get any more pressing.

First off, he would have to find a way to feed Rosemary, then free Erza. Currently, he didn't even remotely know how to do either – a downright invitation for the Council to make matters worse.

"Yoo!" Came Natsu's voice from the sky. He soared down into the clearing with Happy as his wings. He was carrying a goat. Gajeel's features lit up. Gale and Tetsu momentarily interrupted their blaring, ogling the new arrival. Natsu beamed triumphantly, arms akimbo.

He had brought a goat. He had actually found and brought back a goat – most likely stolen, but that didn't matter at that moment. The important thing was—

"Natsu, that's a billygoat." Jellal really wanted get closer to that tower– this time to hit his head against it.

"What? She isn't called Billy." Natsu flicked the tag dangling on the goat's collar. The twins harked at the sound of the attached bell. "The name's Fergus."

"No, it's a male!"

"Oh…"

"Salamander!" Gajeel now rushed Natsu with his iron sword.

Gale and Tetsu continued screaming, prompting Gray to run instead of sway calmingly.

"He wasn't kidding when he said our brains are in there…" Jellal muttered. Rosemary cooed, fetching his gaze. He followed it when noticing how she wasn't looking at him at all. A small gasp passed his lips. Erza's foot was back.

With the tower's mysteriously selective magic still pushing him away, Jellal had to wait until her leg had wiggled out far enough for him to reach it. His eyes bulged.

nothing on this earth can destroy it

Jellal gulped. It was written in blood. There was no wound, but if he had to take a guess, he would bet it was his wife's blood that someone had smeared on her leg. Her blood, not her handwriting. Still, he ran his fingers along the underside of her toes, reassured when they wiggled ticklishly. She was alive.

Rosemary whimpered. Jellal rubbed her back, keeping hold of Erza's foot with the other hand. Erza was alive – she was with Wendy too, most likely, any injuries could be treated. As grateful as he was about that, Jellal could not bring himself to be glad. The twins wouldn't die from an hour's delay of feeding time and neither would Rosemary, but…

But she had been under the influence of Erza's pills in early pregnancy. She had been born at home and in a haste. She was younger, weaker, or perhaps not, he remembered with magic overload in mind. Why he was conjuring up all of those possible threats to her health now, he didn't know, but he couldn't stand waiting around any longer.

"Nothing on this earth can destroy it?" Gray read aloud. The twins were still screaming. Their father was too, in the distance, hunting Natsu who was roaring with laughter at his mistake.

"Do we have a pen?" Jellal asked. His eyes had sharpened, mind ablaze.

She must have had the same idea.

"Levy probably has one," Gray proposed. "Hey, Gajeel!" He yelled over the boys. When there was no reply, he jogged to Levy's tent. The twins' cries stumbled into a staccato pace with every hop.

The captured farmer stared at the scene in bewildered terror from where he sat. And these were the renowned strongest wizards of the entire continent…?

"I think I solved our problem!" Gray came marching back over. Jellal took the pen from him. He wiped as much of the blood off as he could reach, then wrote adamantine shield across his wife's calf. She took it back inside. "Here," Gray let Lucy's keys clink in front of Jellal's face which they had found in her tent, "Celestial Spirits from the Celestial World!"

"I doubt they will be able to pass through," Jellal absently dismissed. It was a great solution, but he had already caught on to Erza's scheme. He was becoming nervous just thinking about it. As if on cue, Rosemary squirmed, complaining mildly. It broke his heart to hush her without a single drop of milk to give. She was so pure in her desires, so cruelly refused.

"Aren't the keys from that world too then?" Gray went over to the tower. "They're not wearing clothes; they should go right through," he laughed. Ceasing immediately when the tower forced him away. Vexed, he tried approaching again. "What, are these a threat to you?" he asked the tower. "Are they making you nervous?" It was as if running into an invisible wall, the hand and arm with the keys pushed away. Gale shrieked where he was consequently prodding the magic force too.

"Oi!" Gajeel loomed over Gray out of nowhere.

"At least I'm heaving ideas!" Gray waved the keys about.

"Give me back my babies!"

"You gave them to me!"

Jellal ignored them when Erza's leg returned.

can't use magic

It was written with ink. So then she couldn't use magic. And if none of their clothes had gone with them, it must have been Levy's magic at work, he concluded. He would have told Erza to build up a sweat to get out of whatever sealed her magic, but redecided with his new clues in mind. Oil, he noted on her instep.

Her leg retracted.

"…all your fault because you voted for sunrise."

"Excuse you!" Gray spat while gently untying the second baby sling. The twins were screeching their lungs out. "I distinctly remember that it was you who was too lazy to wait until moon high."

"What if I'll never be able to feed baby Erza again?" Natsu whined.

"Who cares about you?" Gajeel bellowed, intensifying his sons' wailing.

Jellal started to pace. Rosemary gave a noise of discomfort, becoming restless.

"…even know what a female looks like?"

"We should've sent him out for a bottle of milk."

"Or a pregnant woman."

"Do pregnant women smell different from normal women?" Natsu pondered aloud.

"The hell do I know."

"You lived with one for nine months!" Gray accused Gajeel.

Erza's leg returned. Jellal rammed his feet into the ground, catching her ankle mid-kick. He blinked twice to be sure he hadn't misread. So then she really was thinking what he was thinking. That brilliant, insane love of his life.

shield ready

do it

And with that, her leg was gone again.

"That's it." Jellal caught the others' attention. He untied Rosemary from his chest, handing her to Gray's now unoccupied arms. "Step aside. I'm getting my wife back."

"What?" Gajeel frowned dubiously.

"You want not from this earth? You'll get not from this earth," Jellal growled. Fire danced in his eyes as he glared at the tower. His stance widened. Two fingers from each hand shot out, summoning an unholy aura rivalling that of the tower. His voice boomed softly as if echoing off the sky itself. "I'm casting Sema."